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Feds should expect minor tweaks in Obama's second term

Federal News Radio's Jason Miller on The Federal Drive

(The story was updated at 8:17 a.m. Nov. 7 to include comments from Don Kettl
of the University of Maryland.)

Federal employees can expect only limited changes to the management of their
agencies with the re-election of Barack Obama as President of the United States.

Agencies will continue to focus on high-priority, mission-centric goals. They
should expect initiatives such as strategic sourcing, cloud computing and reform
to the federal hiring process to march down a similar path as they have over the
last
four years.

The President defeated Gov. Mitt Romney Tuesday with 303 electoral votes to Romney's 206. Florida's 29 electoral votes were still up in the air at the time this article was posted.

The budget will remain the
top driving factor in many of the performance initiatives in the second term.
Obama is expected to increase the pressure on agencies to apply technology and
people to save money.

First, however, the President and Congress must deal with the looming cuts of
$1.2 trillion over the next decade, of which $110 billion kicks in Jan. 2 because
of sequestration.

The make-up of the Congress is staying relatively the same in the
second Obama term, with Democrats remaining in control of the Senate and
Republicans in control of the House. But retirements, term limits and a few new
lawmakers will alter the leadership of some committees.

There are other budget-related issues such as Bush-era tax cuts and the fiscal
2013 spending bills for every agency, as well as Postal Service reform,
comprehensive
cybersecurity legislation and the Defense authorization bill, that Obama and
lawmakers will have to address.

Despite the budget pressures, the administration's push to improve services to
citizens will continue, but the burden of having to do that with less money will
remain strong.

Bipartisan opportunity

In his election night speech, Obama called for greater compromise moving
forward.

"In the weeks ahead, I also look forward to sitting down with Governor Romney to
talk about where we can work together to move this country forward," Obama said.

Some experts say there could be an opportunity for bipartisanship in a second term.

Obama has a chance now to play the role of "senior statesman" to bring the two
parties together, said Don Kettl, dean of the School of Public Policy at the
University of Maryland, in an interview on The
Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp.

Obama could be "the guy who's going to be stepping in and trying to find a way to
bring sanity to the big problems that we're facing," Kettl said.

Republicans, then, will have the challenge of not becoming the "party of no," he
said.

Dan Blair, president of the National Academy of Public Administration and a former
deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management under President George W.
Bush's administration, told Federal News Radio in September that "the two most
productive years in the Bush administration were the two years after his re-election."

During its second term, the Bush administration added to its management agenda
with items such as federal asset management, reducing improper payments and faith-
based and community initiatives.

However, Obama acknowledged in his speech that the road to compromise wouldn't
come easily.

"By itself, the recognition that we have common hopes and dreams won't end all the
gridlock or solve all our problems or substitute for the painstaking work of
building consensus and making the difficult compromises needed to move this
country forward," he said. "But that common bond is where we must begin. Our
economy is recovering. A decade of war is ending. A long campaign is now over."

There is a strong likelihood the Obama administration will expand a handful of its
key management initiatives. For instance, the Office of Management and Budget is
considering making strategic sourcing mandatory and giving more authority to
agency chief information officers.

Additionally, OMB launched 13 cross-agency priority goals with the 2013 budget
request, and those likely will receive a strong focus over the next four years.

"Twenty-four major federal agencies have also identified a limited number of two-
year agency priority goals in the fiscal 2013 budget, aligned with their strategic
goals and objectives," according to OMB's website. "Agency priority goals target
areas where agency leaders want to achieve near-term performance acceleration
through focused senior leadership attention. The administration has also adopted a
limited number of cross-agency priority goals to improve cross-agency coordination
and best practice sharing."